The Power of Visualization: Using Vision Boards to Manifest Your Goals

Do you ever find yourself daydreaming of the perfect future? One where you’re happy, fulfilled, and have everything you ever desired? 

If you have, you’ve begun shaping a vision for your future. 

Why is having a vision for your future important? 

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” -Walt Disney

A clear vision for your future is a roadmap to living the life you dream of and will inspire you to take action. 

A vision can help you clearly understand where you are now and where you would like to be. Then, it can be broken up into goals and habits that will help you materialize different components of the big-picture vision you have for yourself. 

Without a vision of what you want your future to look like, you may feel lost and directionless, taking each day as it comes with no clear plan for moving forward or expanding your world. To begin creating your vision, I recommend checking out this blog and completing the Best Possible Future Self exercise at the end.  

Once you have a clear idea of your vision, you will want to manifest it through repeated visualization. One way to do this is by creating a vision board and using it as a tool to remind you of what your vision looks like. 

What is a vision board? 

Vision boards are powerful manifestation tools and can be used by anyone hoping to create a clear vision and direction for their life. 

A vision board is a collection of images and words that inspire you to focus on your desired outcome. It’s a creative visual representation of your dreams that, when placed in a place you will see every day, will remind you of what you’re working towards and guide your habits, goals, and actions. 

Once you’ve created your vision board, you should spend some time looking at it each day, summoning the feelings you hope to feel, and envisioning yourself already having everything on it. 

Why do vision boards work?

A vision board is a visualization exercise, and your mind responds to visual stimulation. In fact, many elite athletes use visualization techniques to achieve their athletic goals. The concept of a vision board is born from the principles of the law of attraction, which states that we receive what we put out or what we focus on is what we attract. 

The repeated visual exposure to your vision board helps reprogram your subconscious mind so that you begin to take actions that align with your goals and vision for the future. 

The more concretely and in detail you can visualize the future you want, the more likely you are to believe that you can achieve all you dream of. 

For vision boards to be truly effective, they should evoke how you want to feel. Attaching emotion to the visual representations helps create the magic. 

Vision boards essentially help drive the mindset shift that needs to occur inside you so you can motivate yourself to accomplish your goals and attract more of what you desire. 

6 Reasons To Create Your Own Vision Board

1. It helps you get clear about what you want. When we don’t have clearly defined goals or a set vision we’re working towards, it can be easy to live life on autopilot, fall off track or forget what our priorities should be.
2. Vision boarding is an excellent self-exploration exercise. It’s an opportunity to craft a visual representation of your ideal life through your eyes while helping you learn more about yourself in the process. 
3. A vision board serves as a daily reminder of what your purpose is. Repeated reminders of your goals and desires help give your life meaning and direction
4. It boosts motivation. On days when you’re feeling out of sorts and lost, vision boards can serve as a motivator by reminding you what your big-picture focus is. This boosts your drive to get to work. 
5. It’s a chance to engage your creativity. Vision boards aren’t just useful for manifesting your dreams, they’re also fun to make! You don’t have to have any special art skills to create one so it’s a great creative activity that anyone can enjoy. 
6. Vision boards boost optimism and confidence. A survey on small business owners and entrepreneurs found that those who use vision boards are twice as confident they will achieve their financial goals than those who don’t use them. 

4 Easy Steps For Creating and Using a Vision Board

You don’t have to be an artist to create a vision board! Follow these easy steps to get started.

1. Start by planning your board

Your vision board can be based on dreams for the life you want to live or specific to certain goals, aspirations, values, a business idea, or a specific area you want to focus on in your current life.

You may want to start with the Best Possible Self exercise. Pick a potential time in your future, for example, 1, 3, 5, or 10 years from now. Once you pick your future time frame, imagine that you have achieved all your life goals, and mentally explore it, how will you feel, where will you be, who will you be with, and what will you be doing? Write a detailed description of your future self and future life and how it feels to achieve your life goals. 

2. Building your vision board

There are many options for building a vision board; use what works best for you. 

Here are some suggestions:

• Use a foam board, poster board, or any piece of cardboard to paste pictures from magazines, google images, Pinterest, photos, words, quotes, affirmations, or whatever helps you to feel the positive emotions of the life you desire. 
• It can be a couple of pages in your journal or planner.
• You can use the free version of Canva to create a digital board that can be saved and used as a wallpaper on your phone or computer screen or printed, framed, and hung in a place that will be visible every day. I created mine on Canva, sent it to Costco to make an acrylic board and placed it on an easel.

A tip: The key here is to find images and words that evoke the feelings you want to associate to your dream life and what it feels like to accomplish your goals. It’s not just about the material representation. 

3. Set aside some time to create your board. 

Make it an event, a time of relaxation and creativity. Play your favorite tunes, light a candle, or use aromatherapy to get in a relaxed state of mind. You may want to enjoy your favorite tea, coffee, or glass of wine. This is your time to dream, focus on how you want to feel as your vision is manifested, and create something beautiful. 

4. Place your board in a place that will be visible to you every day. 

Imagine being in the future, how you would feel, what you would be doing and who you would be with. Look at your board every day and spend time feeling what the you of the future is experiencing. Repetition is the key to training your conscious mind to think about the habits, goals and actions you need to take to create the life you desire. 

Finally, don’t forget to take tiny steps every day and practice gratitude for what you’re accomplishing now and how far you’ve come. Expressing gratitude regularly can help you attract more positivity and abundance into your life.